- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward" where local leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities and how we do business in Central Illinois.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Business Forward".

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Jim Rochford, attorney at law at Jim Rochford and Associates and much, much more.

We're gonna get to that soon.

Welcome.

- Yeah, thank you.

Great to be here, Matt.

- Well, I'm glad you're here.

I wanted you on, and we're gonna get to it, but you have a very, very unique career.

You've had a fun, fun career, and we're gonna get to that.

So, let's start off with you.

Did you grow up here in Central Illinois?

- Yes, I grew up on the East Bluff in Peoria and went to St. Bernard's grade school and then Spalding High School.

- [Matt] Where'd you go to college?

I think it was Loras?

- Yeah, I went to Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

- Dubuque, Iowa, what made you go there?

- Well, my dad went there.

And actually, Don Ameche, I don't know if you remember that name.

- I know that name.

- Yeah, Don Ameche went there and was two years ahead of my dad at Loras.

And you know, they changed the name of it.

It was actually Columbia College back at that time and it switched to Loras, but same school.

- [Matt] I did not know that.

- And then two of my daughters went there and I met my wife there while we were in college.

- Nice.

Nice.

So, here you are, you get outta college, I'm guessing, did you always want to be an attorney?

- Yeah, I really did because I always, you know, I saw the play "To Kill Mockingbird" at Cornstock years ago, and Dr. Morgan actually played the lead role.

And I'd seen that movie and it really had an impact on me and made me interested in law.

And so, even throughout high school and college, I definitely was gearing myself towards going to law school.

- That's an amazing story if you think about it.

If you didn't go to that play, maybe you're not a lawyer.

- Yeah.

- That's crazy.

- Yeah.

- So, one of the things when I was, and we've known each other for various reasons over the years and basketball and sports and other things, but one of the things that I was really intrigued about was, you know, in my past running nonprofits, seeing the ills of society and then seeing good and tough things.

You worked at Cook County State's attorney's office.

And when I was reading this, I was like, I know you were in law school, but you were in the felony division.

- Yep.

- Give me a story.

I mean, that is crazy.

- Yeah, so basically, at 26th and California in Chicago is where the courtroom is, and, excuse me, the parking lot has barbed wire all the way around it.

Got to park in the parking lot.

But it was something that I think they felt they needed with the neighborhood.

It was not a very safe neighborhood.

But, you know, my case, I got assigned to an attorney who'd been an FBI agent.

We hit it off very well.

I got to prosecute two cases by myself with him in the courtroom.

One was a rape case and the other one was a criminal assault case.

And then I second chaired a murder trial with him.

But kind of the most noteworthy experience is we had a case where the police were not being honest on a case there.

And he had me interrogate half of the police and he interrogated the other half.

And then we went in and reported to the first assistant to Richard Daley, who was the state's attorney at the time and future mayor of Chicago.

And finally at one point, he dismissed me from the room and he said, "What are you doing having a law student involved doing this?"

He said, "Hey, this guy's not like any law student I've ever seen."

He said, "He asks better questions than I do."

But it was a great experience and enjoyed it.

I did get offered a job, but I knew I wanted to be in Peoria eventually, practicing law.

And so, I really didn't want to go that route.

- Think about that opportunity he gave you.

- Yeah, it was really a fantastic experience.

And you know, just being able, you know, the murder case I second chaired, and this is, you know, all in my last year of law school, was involving a minister that was paying the people that worked on rebuilding his church.

And three people came up and shot him and killed him and took over $100,000 cash that he had.

- Oh, my goodness.

My goodness.

So, you had the dream come back to Peoria.

So, in 1986 you opened up your own business.

And then, since opening the firm, you know, I've used your services and I'm thinking about potential trademarks and all these different things.

And you know, there's certain attorneys that have just one specialty.

- Yeah.

- I'm looking at everything you do, and I'm going, "Wait a minute."

You've had your hand in every potential bucket - Yeah.

- that there is.

How do you become so diverse just because you can?

- Well, yeah, to some extent.

I went to a event for Jerry Brady, who's now deceased, but was a Kiwanis member that was in the same club as me.

And he got described as kind of a Renaissance man that did just about everything.

And, and frankly, other than Jerry Brady and myself, I really can't think of any other attorney in the Peoria area at least that has done the different types of things.

But one of the things is I like helping people.

And if you know, how to litigate for example, doesn't really matter what the subject matter is.

I mean, you can, you know, research case law and come up with that.

And that certainly has gotten easier with the computerization on cases.

But in the end, the only thing that we absolutely don't do, we don't do any taxes or tax returns or anything like that, but we also don't do any individual bankruptcies.

And so, if I'm in bankruptcy court, which I have quite a bit, I'm there on the creditor side.

- [Matt] I gotcha.

- But other than that, we pretty well will do, and I have four attorneys and we kind of have the one that's the most skilled at an area kinda handle it, or the one that can provide it at the least cost to the client.

- Yeah, and you do have that culture, that mentality of you just wanna take care of your client.

- Yeah, and that's what it's all about.

And I mean, frankly, Matt George is knowing how to do service and help others and you know, turn things around from the children's home, to other sports things that he's been involved in.

So, you know, you really have a similar, I think passion for helping the people you're working with.

And that's what we do at the law office.

- Well, one of the things, I appreciate you saying that, one of the things that I found interesting is, is that you filed a lawsuit against the NCAA and that went, in today's world, we'll call it viral.

- Yeah.

- But that just blew up everywhere.

- Yeah, and it was in newspapers all over the country.

Frankly, the day of the oral argument in federal court, I got diagnosed with bad pneumonia.

My doctor called my wife, who's my boss and my office manager.

Why should my marriage be any different, right?

And he said, "I wanna put him in the hospital."

And she said, "He's got an oral argument today.

I'm not even gonna tell him that you called and said this because I know there's no way."

So, throughout that hearing the NCAA had three attorneys at the hearing.

I was there by myself and had to keep drinking Vicks Formula 44 to keep from coughing.

And ended up, actually the next day, being in the hospital for seven days with a pretty serious case of pneumonia.

And the things is is that I did that on kinda like the side from other things.

Read every case that the NCAA had filed suit, which was well over a hundred back at that time.

And so kinda got a feel for the law.

And you know, the thing about it is, is that day, Bradley was like, 2-13, so the one thing that we couldn't get overturned was making them eligible for the NCAA tournament.

But they said take that up with the Seventh Circuit.

And Seventh Circuit didn't have a date open before the end of the season for having an appeal even on an emergency basis.

But we did make law in terms of winning some points for the people we were representing, which were players at Bradley that had not even been at Bradley when the alleged infractions had taken place.

- Huh, very, very interesting.

It was even in Sports Illustrated.

- Yeah, it was in Sports Illustrated and it had Percy Hawkins's picture and said he won his case on a higher court and talked about the lawsuit.

And I got my name in Sports Illustrated and not for my jump shots.

(Matt chuckles) - Oh, man, that's interesting.

You also served as the fire and police commissioner for both East Peoria and Creve Coeur for several years.

But you know, you served as general counsel for the Peoria Housing Authority.

I think that's interesting.

You know, the Peoria Housing Authority and all housing authorities, it's a business that most people do not understand.

- Yeah, and you know, certainly a business that is needed and they do a lot of things.

So, I was a general counsel for nine years at the Peoria Housing Authority, and one of the things, just an example, I donated Christmas trees to each housing unit and then bought decorations and let them decorate the facility for the residents the way that they wanted.

And then had a prize of $500 for the tenant council that did the best job and then had the board go around, along with the housing managers.

And so bringing, you know, the board and the management staff of the housing authority to be the judges.

And then I just gave that award out.

And that was just something, I always believe in trying to, you know, give back and to do things.

But, you know, one of my experiences there that was kind of a little bit different was that they were doing some drug sweeps.

And this was back when Warner Homes was still in place, and so, on a Friday night, the board wanted me to be down there for that.

So, I show up and I had my suit on and one of the undercover police officers that was there had been on the Vietnam Moving Wall committee with me.

And I'd brought that to Glen Oak Park a number of years ago and had General Westmoreland come in and speak to the school kids in Peoria, and got the chance to introduce him.

And he looked at me and he said, "Rochford, what are you doing down here on a Friday night with a suit on?"

And I said, "Well, I didn't know what to wear."

And he said, "Just stand behind me and stay outta the way."

And I said, "Okay."

- That's funny.

You know, before we get, I'm gonna transition into community service, but I found this pretty interesting, in all the time that you were doing that with Peoria Housing Authority, you never lost an eviction case.

- Yes.

- That's crazy.

- And you know, there were some months where we were doing over 200 in a month at the top of the, you know, the kind of volume at that time.

And the thing is, the one thing though that I always remember growing up on East Bluff, my family never owned a car during my tenure.

I got severely burned when I was five years old, was in the hospital for eight months and had 35 major surgeries.

And so, you know, I feel lucky I got the last sacrament of my church 'cause they thought I was gonna pass away.

So, I always look at anybody that I'm dealing with and treat 'em with respect.

So, every time a tenant would come in for an eviction, I would shake their hand, introduce myself, say I'm the attorney for the Housing Authority, and thank you for coming to court today.

At the end of court after getting the evictions, I would be walking out with the tenants and talking to them, and the bailiffs would say to me, "We have people sometimes that are kind of chest butting with somebody that they're evicting in the back room and you come in and you're walking out like you're their best friend."

And the reason is, is that I believe that everybody deserves to be treated with respect.

And that's what I always do.

- Well that compassion piece.

That thread of empathy and sympathy runs through your whole body.

The first time I met you probably 15, 16 years ago when you were doing some things with the basketball tournament and so on is, and then I spoke at Kiwanis, was you have that thread running through your body at all times.

That's just how you're built.

- Yeah, and really I think that, you know, comes from like, my parents.

They believed in the importance of giving back.

We weren't very wealthy financially in my career growing up.

We never owned a car until I bought one when I was in direct sales and had to have a car to be able to do my job and that was in college.

And at the same time, you know, I was taught that you give back and you try to help out others whenever you can.

- Well, you've got a great family.

You've got three kids and you know, you don't even have to say anything to them because they just observed growing up, watching what you've done.

- My son, who's now an attorney in my office, when I was governor of the Kiwanis district he would go with me on a lot of my speeches, he was a fourth grader at that time.

And I would see him in the back of the room kinda marching around giving my talk.

And afterwards on the way home he would critique me and say that I left out this part.

So, my fourth grader knew my speech better than I did.

- That's how my kids are too.

That is so funny.

But it's awesome too.

- Yeah, it is.

- So, let's talk about you, your public service.

You know, there's something that you accomplished and I know you're not a, you don't want the pat on the back, but I'm gonna give it to you 'cause I think it's just amazing.

Many distinguished accomplishments, but you served not just with Kiwanis International, you were the worldwide leader for Kiwanis.

- Yeah.

- How does that happen?

First of all, for people who don't know, what is the mission and goal for Kiwanis?

- Yeah, Kiwanis is international, we're in over 80 nations throughout the world.

And the thing that distinguishes us from other worthwhile groups is the emphasis on youth.

We sponsor programs in the schools, first grade through college.

Our marquee program is Key Club, which is the largest youth-led organization in the world and it's at the high school level.

Well, I was in Key Club for four years at Spalding and really I went to a lot of Kiwanis meetings while I was in Key Club of the club that I'm still in and that is what influenced me to want to come back and be in the same Kiwanis club that had sponsored me in Key Club.

And we try to plant the seeds with youth so when they get out and they're running the children's home or they're a lawyer, or whatever they might be doing, they'll still want to give back by doing community service.

And we have programs first grade through college.

I still go to the Boys and Girls Club on East Bluff and recognize two programs we have in Kiwanis.

One is called Bring Up Grades and the other one's Terrific Kids.

And so, Bring up Grades will recognize any student that brings a grade up.

It can be an F to a D, or like, someone like you probably that got all As, we still recognize that.

And so, but you know, the thing is, is that it's building self-esteem through programs.

Another program called Terrific Kids.

If any student does something out of the ordinary, a teacher can nominate them and then we recognize them as well.

- That's unbelievable.

So, one of the things I like about Kiwanis and what you do is because you can have any leader, let's say plug into that position and you can go all in or you can go, you've seen it both ways.

But the thing that's interesting, and that I find most important, and this goes not just to our community, we just happen to bear the fruits of what you did, is you're developing young leaders to take control, so to speak, of the next generation of leadership here in our community.

- Yeah, and that's really the way it works, is that you have to plant the seeds when people are young and then that makes them want to, you know, be an adult that is still giving back and kinda paying it forward somewhat in the sense for the next generation.

And that model has worked really well.

Interestingly, the big three, and they're all very good organizations, but Lions, Rotary, and Kiwanis are the big three in community service groups and they all have their niche, but you know, Rotary is based 70% outside the United States, Lions is 88% plus outside the United States, and Kiwanis is still 70% in the United States.

And the reason is, is because of our programs in the schools are such a good fit with the school programs we have.

And so, I chair a high school all-star basketball game and have done that now for 13 years.

And we have 40 high school seniors from Central Illinois play their last game.

For many of them, it's their last organized basketball game they'll ever play.

There's a few each year that go on to college, but it's still a chance to have them have one last shot.

We give 'em a jersey with their name on it, we give 'em a t-shirt that has all the players' names on it and it's really a nice event.

- 40 Years, so, congrats.

40 plus years, Kiwanis, congrats.

- Yeah, and enjoyed every minute of it.

- I love it.

So, you also drafted Peoria's third All-American City Award.

- Yes.

- That's an honor too.

- Yes, and that was a great opportunity.

So, Peoria won the All-American City in 1954 and 1966, and then the one that I drafted was in 1989.

I was close friends with former mayor Jim Maloof, who's now deceased.

And you know, Mayor Maloof kinda, I reached out to him and said, "Hey, I always wondered about the All-American City because I was sitting in church and my pastor talked about the All-American City when we won it in 1966.

And then I did a little checking on it.

Peoria had actually applied four other times in the '80s and it was under Mayor Carver's administration, actually I believe his daughter that had submitted the application.

So, I got a copy of those applications and kind of learned a little bit on the process and then drafted it in 1988.

Well, they had not made those four times the final 30.

30 cities are chosen to be a finalist and then they make a presentation and promote a booth promoting their community.

And so, the first time that I drafted in '88, we made the final 30 and Mayor Maloof and I made the jury presentation.

Well, at that point I knew how the written word had gone for what they were looking for, but I sat through all 30 presentations.

We didn't get in the final 10 that year, but I learned from watching the other presentations.

So, next year I was ready to hit the ground running and we not only, one, were one of the 10, but we actually were recognized as the number one out of all the cities and got invited to the White House to be presented an award.

- Wow.

- Yeah, and we were written about in USA Today.

So, it was really nice.

And we promoted it for a full year thereafter and I was in charge of that committee and it was really a great experience.

- Think about that.

So, one of my favorite things, so, if I'm in Bloomington and I'm driving and coming through Morton on 74 and let's say it's about eight o'clock at night, nine o'clock at night, and you see the skyline of Peoria, it's like one of my most proud moments of living here is you see it and you go, that is just one cool skyline.

That's like a big, it's a big city.

- Yeah.

- But the bridge.

And you see the bridge and now it's lit up, and boy is it beautiful.

- Yeah.

- And there's a cost to that.

And you were part of those fundraising efforts, or at least I think you led the fundraising efforts.

- Yeah.

- Or one of 'em.

Yeah, and so, the effort was really, there were three of us that were integrally involved in it at the start and that was Leonard Marshall, who was president of now Chase Bank at that time, and then D. James Jumer, and then myself.

And you know, basically we raised some money.

You know, I got individual people and businesses to sponsor each light.

And there were actually 256 lights on the bridge and each one had a name.

And actually on the Peoria side we have kind of a monument that has the names of each sponsor of each of those 256 lights.

And so I was, you know, running that part of it.

And so, I had Leonard Marshall as number one, and D. James Jumer as two, and then myself and my whole family including my kids were number three on it.

But other people stepped forward and it was just a thing to have pride in the community.

And, you know, again, what you're saying is that it is a prideful moment coming over from East Peoria to Peoria and seeing the lights on the bridge.

And certainly they've done a great job now in adding multiple colors and (indistinct).

Yeah, I love that too.

- So, we've got a few minutes left.

I wanna talk about, there's a lotta people that don't know you as an attorney.

There's a lotta people that know you as a basketball coach.

And so, you started the AAU program, the Peoria Irish.

And I don't think, you know, players coming up, young players, they may not realize that, but that program's big.

- Yeah.

- Go ahead.

- Yeah, and so, the Peoria Irish is something that I started and it was just a way of giving kids a chance to get involved in playing at a higher level.

Certainly there's all sorts of house leagues and that's great, you know, to have your child participate in that.

But those who are are serious about basketball and really playing, AAU is really what they need to do.

So at one time, you know, my Peoria Irish programs were playing in a thing called the AYBT, American Youth Basketball League.

And they had a national that took place at the Unidome at the University of Northern Iowa.

And in sixth grade, I had a team that went undefeated and they were sixth graders and we actually played in the high school bracket at the tournament and we won it.

And I said, "We need to move on to a different level."

And so, we moved on then to AAU and really kind of built up a program where we had teams for various ages.

I would generally coach the team.

And the last year that I went to the national, Disney kind of realized what a great opportunity there was with AAU.

So, they have a facility called the Wide World Sports and all the AAU nationals now are held there.

As I was kind of moving up throughout it, Detroit would have one national, you know, Ohio would have another national- - Yeah, just scattered.

- Scattered.

And now, all the high school levels, well eighth grade on up are all held at Disney.

And there'll be thousands of teams actually will come.

And so, you know, the last team that I had there, we had, you know, 24 teams from Illinois that qualified and you have to qualify to go to the nationals.

And there were 1,700 teams at that national.

And out of the 24 Illinois teams, we were the only one that finished, the top 24 get recognized, and my team finished in the top 20 and we won our last six games.

And in our last six games, we did not see a Caucasian on any opposing team.

Most of my teams were pretty well equally mixed between African Americans and Caucasians.

But that year, I had two African Americans that were hurt and, you know, couldn't play.

One had surgery, other one was with us, but couldn't dress.

And we had eight Caucasians and one African American, and we won all of our last six games.

We ended up finishing in the top 20 and we actually played four future NBA players at that national.

- How many players have gone through?

You've seen thousands?

- Yes, thousands and thousands.

But you know, in terms of my program over a hundred kids that I personally coached have played college basketball.

- Think about that.

- Yeah, and a number at D1 level and I had two that played in the NBA that I coached- - Name a couple of 'em.

- Well Alec Peters, who's from Washington.

- He's tough.

- Yeah.

And he's all-10 lead scorer and rebounder at Valparaiso.

Played for Phoenix Suns, averaged about 15 minutes in his rookie year making 750,000.

And then got a chance the next year to go over and play in the top European- - He played in Russia or something didn't he?

- Yeah, he was the MVP of the top European League, playing for Russia and they won the league and he was the leading scorer and the leading player.

Lotta those leagues over there will have a one or two USA player limit.

So, the first thing they're looking for, you could be a mediocre seven footer and maybe have a chance to play, but they look for an Alec Peters or, you know, you know Mitchell Anderson, who played at Bradley, had a successful career over there after being in the NBA for a while.

And in the end, if you can do it all, you can score and do it all, and Alec Peters is a tremendous shooter.

And you know, it got to the point where it wasn't safe to play in Russia if you're from the United States- - He moved over?

- Yeah.

No, he's still playing over there in the same league, but he's playing- - Not in Russia.

- Yeah, not in Russia.

- All right, well, I appreciate you coming on the show.

This was fun.

I mean, you and I could probably talk sports alone for about a full day.

But I appreciate you coming on, Jim Rochford, Rochford and Associates.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward."

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